In general, a policy refers to a collection of disk files to be protected. Other information may be considered as belonging to the policy (e.g., location of the files, backup parameters, user specified metadata, a duration for which the data should be protected, a route to which the protected data should be sent etc.). However, for the purposes of this document, it should be understood that the term “policy” simply refers to a set of files (i.e., protected data). Accordingly, policy changes are changes to the protected data.
A server data protection product backs up protected data of a policy over the internet to a (computer) vault at a remote site and then replicates the protected data of that policy to a second (computer) vault at a geographically separate site. These vaults are configured in pairs, with one vault at each remote site. The server is considered protected in that the protected data of the backed up policy can be restored from either vault.